A fifty-eight year old man has been fined more than $17,000 after pleady guilty to charges related to contraband cigarettes.Harold Ronald Davidson from Lincoln was arrested in May after an eight-month long RCMP investigation where police seized 24,000 illegal cigarettes and a quantity of cash.Davidson pleaded in Burton Provincial court.

The Atlantica Centre For The Arts announcing their new "virtual" college. Unlike online courses, the program offers real-time, virtual classrooms complete with live lectures, classmates, study rooms and even a Foosball table.

Atlantica President Mike McGraw tells CHSJ news the virtual classroom is the first of it's kind in the world, a combination of traditional and online learning.

Mobile app development will be the first course taught, which McGraw says is the worlds fastest growing sector of the economy.

The course will be a year long and cost under $15,000. The first four instructors are from Saint John, but McGraw says students and teachers from around the world have access to be a part of it.

The city is being asked to regulate and stage mixed martial arts until the province creates a governing body and the Attorney-General isn't objecting.

That word delivered to Common Council along with the estimate that a large mixed martial arts card at the L-B-R generate as much as 300 thousand dollars in spending.

The overall rate of critical injuries is said to be low with mixed martial arts and there are fewer knockouts than in boxing.

The city would rename the Saint John Boxing Commission, the Mixed Martial Arts Commission to oversee the matches that are staged locally. The city would still like to see provincial regulation and will be hearing back from its Solicitor John Nugent.

An early Sunday morning fire in a building at 10 Spruce Street was contained to the living room on the first floor and there were no injuries but 15 people have been forced to find somewhere else to live for the next while.

Some anxious moments with a car fire early morning on St. John Street on the west side because of how close it was to a nearby building. The fire was snuffed out quickly without spreading to the building itself which was 15 to 20 feet away.

Designed like a drag strip is how EXP Architect's Morgan Lanigan describes Douglas Avenue in the North End.

After hearing complaints about heavy traffic from people who live on the street, he's come up with some solutions to make it more safe. Lanigan hopes to present his "Traffic Calming Pilot Program" to Common Council. He tells CHSJ news marked pedestrian crossings, restricting left hand turning off Douglas and making the street more narrow are all inexpensive ways to reduce congestion. He says if the pilot project is accepted by Council, he hopes it could transfer to similar roads.

He adds part of Plan SJ is to attract more families, and this project would make the street more desirable.

Councillor Mackenzie is scheduled to present the idea to Common Council tonight.

The Saint John Airport Authority will be announcing a new direct air service to Quebec City and Newfoundland tomorrow.

The airport is always on the lookout to generate new revenue. Airport President and C-E-O Bernie Leblanc warns if it depends only on passengers, this can be risky given the volatility of the market.

Leblanc tells CHSJ News there are 400 acres of land around the airport, if developed, could generate alot of new revenue and help guarantee long term sustainability.He says the airport also keeps in regular touch with Porter Airlines about establishing another air service from Saint John to Toronto.